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U.S. to UN: Do It Our Way

Program #CHON166.
Recorded in Cambridge, MA
on April 17, 2001.

Imagine someone owed you a lot of money, but before paying it back, that person insisted that you not only reduce the amount but also change the way you conduct your affairs. OK. You are broke and desperate. You go along with the debtor's demands. Then, to top it off, you still don't get paid. This essentially encapsulates U.S. behavior toward the United Nations. Official Washington has traditionally seen the New York-based organization as a weapon to promote its interests. But whenever the UN steps out of line, it incurs the disapproval and wrath of the world's superpower.

Recorded at MIT.

Speaker(s):

Noam Chomsky, by any measure, has led a most extraordinary life. In one index he is ranked as the eighth most cited person in history, right up there with Aristotle, Shakespeare, Marx, Plato and Freud. The legendary MIT professor practically invented modern linguistics. In addition to his pioneering work in that field he has been a leading voice for peace and social justice for many decades. Chris Hedges says he is “America’s greatest intellectual” who “makes the powerful, as well as their liberal apologists, deeply uncomfortable.” He is Institute Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics and Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. At 90, he still gives lectures all over the world. He is the author of scores of books, including Propaganda & the Public Mind, How the World Works, Power Systems and Global Discontents with David Barsamian.